District Utility Court sentence lady to one day imprisonment

- A District Utility Court has sentenced a fashion designer to a one day imprisonment

- Bridget James stole power belonging to ECG valued at GH¢1,052.14

- She was released after 2pm and deemed to have served her sentence just when court proceedings ended

The Chief Justice’s special court also known as the District Utility Court has sentenced a fashion designer, Bridget James to a day’s imprisonment last Saturday for bypassing an Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) meter in her house and stealing power valued at GH¢1,052.14.

The lady, a resident of Osu pleaded guilty to two counts of intentionally interfering with the ECG distribution system and stealing power.

Presenting the facts of the case, the Manager in charge of Prosecutions at the ECG, Mr Paul Assibi Abariga, told the court presided over by Mr Wolanyo Kotoku that the illegal power consumption was detected by a team from the ECG Revenue Protection Unit in Accra during its usual random field investigations.

When the team got to Bridget’s residence on November 4, 2015, they detected that she had tampered with the meter to make it impossible for it to read the amount of power consumed.

The ECG team quickly reported the incidence to the police who affected her arrest.

In her caution statement to the police, Bridget admitted the offence but stated that in September, 2015, she detected that her meter could not indicate the credit she had bought on the ECG prepaid card so she contacted an electrician to work on it.

She admitted that the ECG team went to her house the following day and detected the bypass, but she could not lead the police to arrest the electrician who adjusted the meter without her consent and knowledge.

Mr Wolanyo Kotoku, who showed remorse during the trial, sentenced Bridget to 60 penalty units, representing GH¢720 at GH¢12 per unit for the first count and a day’s imprisonment for the second count.

Bridget, however, was released after 2 p.m. when court ended in accordance with the law which stipulates that persons convicted for a day sit in the court until proceedings end or they are detained by the case manager or investigator until 2 p.m.

The convict, was billed GH¢1,052.14 and had since paid the full amount to the power distributor.

The ECG Prosecutor, Mr Abariga, told newsmen that he hoped the sentence was deterrent enough to would-be offenders.

It would be recalled that a maintenance supervisor at Forewin Ghana Limited, and a cashier were put before the same court for allegedly bypassing and stealing power valued at GH¢205,303.35 belonging to the company some few days ago.

The court granted them bail in the sum of GH¢80,000, with three sureties, two of whom must be public servants.